NPTEL MOOC

PROGRAMMING,
DATA STRUCTURES AND
ALGORITHMS IN PYTHON
Week 1, Lecture 4

Madhavan Mukund, Chennai Mathematical Institute

http://www.cmi.ac.in/~madhavan
Installing Python
Python is available on all platforms: Linux, MacOS
and Windows

Two main flavours of Python

Python 2.7

Python 3+ (currently 3.5.x)

We will work with Python 3+

Python 2.7 vs Python 3
Python 2.7 is a static older version

Many libraries for scientific and statistical

computing are still in Python 2.7, hence still
alive

Python 3 is mostly identical to Python 2.7

Designed to better incorporate new features

Will highlight some dierences as we go along

Downloading Python 3.5
Any Python 3 version should be fine, but the latest
is 3.5.x

On Linux, it should normally be installed by

default, else use the package manager

For MacOS and Windows, download and install

from https://www.python.org/downloads/release/
python-350/

If you have problems installing Python, search

online or ask someone!
Interpreters vs compilers
Programming languages are high level, for
humans to understand

Computers need lower level instructions

Compiler: Translates high level programming

language to machine level instructions, generates
executable code

Interpreter: Itself a program that runs and directly

understands high level programming language
Python interpreter
Python is basically an interpreted language

Load the Python interpreter

Send Python commands to the interpreter to be

executed

Easy to interactively explore language features

Can load complex programs from files

>>> from filename import *

Practical demo
Some resources
The online Python tutorial is a good place to start:
https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html

Here are some books, again available online:

Dive into Python 3, Mark Pilgrim

http://www.diveintopython3.net/

Think Python, 2nd Edition, Allen B. Downey

http://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/
Learning programming

Programming cannot be learnt theoretically

Must write and execute your code to fully

appreciate the subject

Python syntax is light and is relatively easy to learn

Go for it!